Some notes from my nephew about today's football games ...

Not totally sure of his reasoning for his picks though - there's a chance his picks might also be his preferred costumes for Halloween ... also, Santa's watching, so being a Raider might not seem +EV, etc

What a little genius!

Have been looking at recipes - maybe fun to try a 'salad week' sometime this month? Some of these seem like they could be quite tasty?

Agenda for 2017


Still lots to do in the new year, even though have already made my purchases for 2017 and plan to hold them for the long-ish term.

My list of things to do ...

1. Keep up to date with:

• Company-specific news
• General news of what's happening in the world at large

There was that tip earlier, that lots of things can affect the share price of a company, besides just the things the company does - so maybe helpful to try to watch out for all these things?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

Some of the factors that may affect the performance of a company

1. The company - including management
2. The environment - including customers
3. The industry at large
4. The general economy
5. The political climate

Especially with Trump taking office - guess will have to see what gets changed? And hopefully he doesn't go starting wars in different parts of the world, or anything like that

2. Reliability testing of resources

Have been relying a lot on analyst price and earnings estimates, and recommendations - so guess next year will be a chance to see how close the various predictions came to the results ... or if they were off, why?

Stuff to watch:

(a) My picks

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

(b) Other stuff that looked promising?

Even though wound up going with other stuff, maybe it'll still be interesting to keep track of the other stuff that may still do fine? There's Visa, Domino's and Home Depot. And there's also United Health, which looks lovely and seemed to get quite a few recommendations - it kind of made me nervous to not have any experience with the US healthcare system though?

And here's that article that's predicting rough times for Domino's:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

Marketwatch: Why Domino’s Pizza stock may be poised for a fall (May 18, 2016)

(c) Goldman Sachs

According to those analyst estimates, guess Goldman Sachs may or may not be in a bit of a bubble? So maybe interesting to watch what and see what's in store for them in 2017?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

LESSON UNKNOWN: So guess it'll be interesting to watch GS next year to see what happens - maybe it's hard for the analysts to know how much the changes in policy might be worth, so maybe the estimates are too low? So maybe the estimates will continue to get revised upwards? Or maybe earnings will far exceed the estimates? Or maybe the bubble will burst and the price of the stock will fall to come more in line with actual earnings? Or maybe the bubble will last for a bit?

3. Putting together a contingency plan

Jim Cramer on CNBC had this tip: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/29/crame...ll-happen.html

Quote:

... things will go wrong. There will be a stock that you own one day where there is something wrong with the company ... Events will come that you cannot foresee.

The trick to reducing the damage to your portfolio is to be ready with a game plan that will bail you out in the short term and keep you in the market long term. This way, your money is ready to work for you when you need it most.

Wouldn't want to sell too soon and too often - but guess if something fundamental changes with a company then maybe there may come a time when it might really be better to sell, and put the money on something less risky and more promising?


So maybe it might be helpful to maintain a list of alternatives, so will be prepared to consider various options?


It seems like it should be good practice too - to continue to read more annual reports, to try and become more comfortable with all the financial data. Guess it can be pretty interesting reading too, to learn more about the types of things that companies have to worry about, especially when the CEO of the company personally writes the intro. And then guess it could also be a chance to practice trying to make predictions about what might be in store for other companies in the new year as well?

So will probably just burrow in and do a lot of reading for the first little while - will see how that goes!

So much cheesey tv on tonight

Warren Buffett's set to make an appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice: Schwarzenegger Edition this season - should be interesting to see him interacting with Snooki, etc lol


(starting to look for some interesting annual reports to read now too )

Reading Materials Update


So before finding poker, used to read a lot - and then after finding poker, didn't wind up reading at all lol




Guess with poker slowing down, have more or less gone back to my previous hobby of reading a lot of non-fiction from the internet, as well as some books from the store

The annual reports wound up being a bit of a dud yesterday - tried reading the CEO intros for McDonald's (MCD) and Walmart (WMT), hoping to hear how they're dealing with their challenges since they haven't been doing well the last year or two. But it seemed like the CEOs were more interested in trying to use the space as a chance to do PR, or something? All the intros had kind of an Eric Hollreiser flavour to them?


So that wasn't very interesting reading - did find this article in the Business section of 2+2 though: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30...ustry-1646798/ . It seems like maybe it might be helpful to read more stories from businesses about the stuff they have to worry about, and what seems to work for them and what might not, and stuff like that? So guess maybe that's what will be focusing on with my reading, and will just have to try to find reading materials that will help with that


They started up another promo on Stars - not sure if it's worth the bother to continue to chase those silly $0.50 bonuses? May order one of those playing history audits, and spend a little time later looking at my stuff from last year - not sure if will want to post my graph or not, will have to see what it winds up looking like haha

Okay, going to make dinner now

Little Poker Update

Was able to get the playing history audit and add all my promo and rakeback stuff to my cash graph - it's so awful looking! Completely unfit for public consumption lol

Managed to make $300 - although that's *with* the promos, which averaged about $1 a day, sooo ... ya, not great Haven't really put any time whatsoever into studying poker over the past two years - so guess that's what happens when time's spent looking at cat videos instead of training videos Oh well ... guess if it only takes a half hour or so to complete the challenges, maybe okay to keep playing for snack money if it's still fun?

Cannot stop watching this video! Looks like such a lovely time, on a sunny afternoon

Reading List for Tonight


Besides the driving doggie video (), found this on the internet as well - maybe interesting to help learn more about Visa?

Also found this book series that's supposed to be pretty famous - there's even a wikisummary for the first one, so that's a big plus

http://www.wikisummaries.org/wiki/Go...Others_Don%27t

So will maybe give these a try tonight?

Wasn't able to read the payments article because it turns out it's a research report, and they're charging a fee to access it - boo!


So will have to try something else today instead - may try to download a bunch of book samples from Amazon, and see if any of them look interesting?

Going to make dinner now

Guess the selection of business books is so much larger than poker, so there's a lot more stuff to sift through?

Just tried doing a google search for something like 'books about why businesses succeed' - and my returns included stuff for a Broadway musical called 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying', starring Daniel Radcliffe and Nick Jonas. Must say, it looks really good! But gosh, looks like this may take a while ...

Hi TrustySam,

Really like your detailed posts. I'm also trying to get into investing, once I stop playing poker so frequently. Have you thought about trading? To me, trading is a lot like poker and being "active" in investing.

Hey Stuntman!


Hey it's neat that you mention trading, because was reading a thread a while ago in the Business section of 2+2, and it seemed to get a lot of interest - it sounds like maybe quite a few people have found active trading quite similar to poker?

Do Traders go through as much variance as poker players?


Part of me has been wondering if have maybe been a bit too timid about being more active with trading, after missing out on some opportunities after Trump got elected. Maybe if this year goes okay, may have more courage to try more short-term stuff a little bit? Although, even then will have only made a handful of trades - guess it'll take a while to gain some experience

Trading sure does look like a promising area for after poker though - starting a business seems to be fairly popular as well ... it's sure nice to see people finding other stuff that's been as interesting/challenging/rewarding as poker


GL with your poker/investing Stuntman!! And thanks so much for stopping by

TrustySam,

I think being timid of something we try for the first time is just normal.

That's very true

Hopefully it'll get better with more practice ...

Have a nice weekend Stuntman!!

Am just burrowing in today because it's sooo cold out ... brrr!!

Will just have to go out to get my free muffin at Tim Horton's, and maybe pick up some other groceries at some point ...


Was watching the PokerStaples stream on twitch to see what things are like in the sunny Bahamas, and Bill Perkins was visiting - he was talking about how he started off being a broker, and then switched to trading natural gas options.

Bill Perkins is so lovely - kind of get the feeling all the stuff he does is super complicated, but he didn't make it sound that way


Pretty fun to tune into a poker stream and get to hear a discussion on investing - yeah, guess there's a fair amount of similarities

Jaime must be streaming from a lobby/lounge or something, because people keep stopping by to chat on stream - now Felipe Mohave is on.

Jaime's also streaming the SHR final table (no hole cards) - it's too bad Stars didn't plan ahead, and are now trying to stream with a makeshift setup ...


Anyways, guess there's a lot more going on in the Bahamas than usual

Meryl Streep's on a massive anti-trump rant for about 10 minutes now on the Golden Globes

Managed to wind up with a long list of promising books to check out, like this book that's supposed to be a favourite of both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates:

Really wanted to like it, but it's like some relic from another era. Guess book-writing styles have evolved as much as movies and tv? So this book was like the Sound of Music of books - must be on the lookout for more of a Star Wars (faster moving )


Wound up downloading these two books after all:


It looks like in the original book the author tries to find some common characteristics of companies that have high returns? Guess those are the sorts of companies am hoping to find to buy shares of?

Lots of graphs and stuff in point form too - so hopefully the book'll be interesting, without being too heavy reading


Hope FB drops back down sometime this week - wasn't able to add more to my RRSP and TFSA until the new year, and would like to use the new money to buy more shares. Will have to see what tomorrow brings - night everybody ...

Okay, going to burrow in and watch cheesey tv and read my two books - hope they have some interesting stuff in them!

Was going to post what have read so far, but couldn't seem to come up with quite the right couple of little sentences

Will keep reading and try again tomorrow

Night everybody

It snowed about half a foot this morning, and now it's raining and have to go out and bring the recycling to the curb ... oh canada ....




Facebook doesn't seem to be dropping too much, so decided to just get the extra shares for my TFSA today:

Donald Trump is supposed to be holding his first press conference tomorrow - was a bit worried he'd say stuff tomorrow like, '2017 is going to be huuuge!' and everyone would go on a buying frenzy, and the price might not get any better than today But who knows - if it winds up going down, guess it'll go back up eventually ...


Going to go take out the recycling, then make some din and put on my jammies

Daily Round-Up


Trump Press Conference

So it sounds like the economy was barely discussed during the press conference, because most of the time was spent on the (possibly untrue) dishy Russian gossip scandal that everybody's talking about on USmagazine.com?



Other Watch List

Guess it's only been a couple of weeks - but am relieved that things seem to be going *okay* so far with my picks. Something that worries me a little bit is seeing how well two of the stocks that didn't make my final cut are doing, Visa and Domino's ...

It makes me wonder if mistakes were made? Did something get missed? Or is it really just too early to tell what things'll be like by the end of the year?

It feels like it can only help to try to learn as much as possible - so hopefully am on the right track by trying to read lots of books and articles about business and investing?



Book: From Good to Great

My new book is pretty good - the book published the findings of a research study on what made more successful companies different from the more average ones - and one difference they found is that the CEOs and employees of the companies that did better were more attuned to what customers wanted ... so then maybe they were better at meeting peoples' needs, and then the $ followed? While the CEO's of the other companies tended to care more about earnings, sometimes because their bonuses were tied to earnings - or else they just weren't that attuned to customer needs, and missed noticing when the market changed, and stuff like that?


Daily Round-Up


Trump Press Conference

So it sounds like the economy was barely discussed during the press conference, because most of the time was spent on the (possibly untrue) dishy Russian gossip scandal that everybody's talking about on USmagazine.com?

Thanks so much niss! Usually try to edit before posting, so will have enough time to do finishing touches once it's posted, but got distracted by a phone call today and ran out of time

It feels much improved with fewer words ... guess less can sometimes be more

Feature Article - Former Facebook Exec Chamath Palihapitiya


It feels reassuring to see someone who's a hedge fund manager who's made some of the same picks, Amazon and Google ...

And he plays poker too - recognized him from his bio ... he played the first One Drop, and here's his Hendon Mob page

That was interesting what he said about Google maybe being in the best position to make AI mainstream?

...and definitely destroy 'civilization' or whatever is this what are we living and that is left of it.
You stake dat gurl, good EV good return.

Serious part of the post: Yeah Chamath just look as the fn coldest smartest guy ever, like THe dude with which you could sit for the whole day in a beach bar have beers and talk, everything, and his stock tips would yet not be the most valuable...
ALL THE WAY TO THE CURB
OH CANADA, OH THE HUMANITY